USS Washington (BB-56)

USS Washington (BB-56) was a US Navy battleship that was laid down on 1 June 1940 at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard. In early 1942, the Washington was deployed to the northern Atlantic Ocean to protect supply convoys headed from Iceland to Murmansk in the USSR, and it was redeployed to the Pacific Ocean in the second half of 1942 for service against Japan during World War II. The ship served as the flagship of Rear Admiral Willis Augustus Lee, and the ship fought in the Guadalcanal campaign, during which it sank the battleship Kirishima and the destroyer Ayanami. In December 1943, the battleship bombarded Nauru, and it took part in the 1944 bombardments of Saipan and Tinian before joining the Battle of the Philippine Sea. She spent the rest of the war escorting convoys and taking part in shore bombardments, including those of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She was decommissioned on 27 June 1947, stricken on 1 June 1960, and was sold for scrapping on 24 May 1961.